


A Different Little Bird

by AshWinterGray



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Sassy Stephanie Brown, Waffles, What-If, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29251494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshWinterGray/pseuds/AshWinterGray
Summary: Due to circumstances, Jason isn't able to attack Tim at Titans Tower, and instead has to wait. So when he gets a chance, he goes to make up for lost time.Only, that isn't Tim.And that is mostly definitely a girl!
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown & Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 13
Kudos: 143





	A Different Little Bird

**Author's Note:**

  * For [envysparkler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/envysparkler/gifts).



Jason’s plan to attack Robin in Titan’s Tower hadn’t gone through when Talia needed him to do a favor. Owing a blood debt and all that really provided problems. So then he had to deal with that nonsense that, honestly, Talia could have dealt with herself. One of these days, he would figure out why she kept vanishing. It was getting suspicious, even if the woman could lie her way into 30 different directions at once.

But that was beside the point. The point was, the little bird hadn’t been to the tower since Talia made him do his little detour, and Jason had just gotten word that Robin was going to be patrolling solo tonight. Dick was in Blüdhaven, Bruce was dealing with League business, and Babs was stuck in her chair. His only probably might have been the new Batgirl, but she wasn’t seen much, and the Birds of Prey would be letting Robin fly relatively alone.

Which was just fine with Jason.

A flash of red, green, and yellow flew past the corner of his eye, and Jason was off.

He was a little surprised to see the green back on the kids suit. These days, the kid only used black and red, with yellow on the underside of the cape for more stealth purposes. Maybe the kid had started feeling sentimental or something. 

What was surprising was that there seemed to be a bit of extra yellow that didn’t quite make sense on top of the kid’s head. Jason would judge later. Kidnap and torture, then judgement. It was a good plan. Sort of. He could probably judge _while_ he tortured.

Details later. Robin had just sprung the trap Jason left.

“Well well well, what do we-WHAT THE HECK!”

Jason barely dodged the brick to the face (or in his case, helmet), and he stared at Robin in peeved shock. Only to do a double take.

“Hey, jerkwad, my eyes are up here,” _she_ snapped at him. “What’s the big idea, anyways? You spring a trap just to use me as eye candy?”

“You’re a girl,” Jason stated dumbly.

“Wow! Really? I had _nooooooo_ idea.”

What the heck? What the _heck?_ What did they do with Replacement? Had Bruce replaced him too? And who even was this girl? More importantly, why was she throwing bricks at people’s faces? That was a good way to kill someone without a helmet, and he knew Bruce wouldn’t approve.

“Are you gonna answer my questions or should I just throw another brick?” the girl-Robin deadpanned.

“Where is Tim?” Jason demanded.

“Who?”

She wasn’t very good at lying. What was Bruce thinking, making this girl Robin?

“Where. Is. Tim. Drake?”

“Weird question, but okay,” the girl-Robin shrugged. “And you’re incredibly rude.”

Jason didn’t get a chance to retort because something landed on his back sending him careening to the floor of the roof. A quick nerve strike had him paralyzed, and then he was rendered unconscious.

_What the heck?_

\--------------------------

“Everyone else was busy!”

“So you brought him _here?!_ Steph, you know my dad will kill me if he finds out!”

“He better not find out, then.”

“You brought a dangerous, gang-murdering criminal to my house, Steph.”

“You can’t tell me you aren’t curious.”

“Little brother very curious.”

“Not you too, Cass!”

Jason felt the air hit his face as his helmet was removed, but he was still a little too numb to truly move. He groaned though, tried to will his head up. The talking became hushed at the sound, and Jason could feel eyes on him.

“No. Way,” a voice breathed. “It can’t be. Am I dreaming? Ow!”

“Not dreaming,” a second voice declared.

“Am I missing something,” a third asked questioned.

“That’s…he looks like…Jason Todd.”

“In the flesh,” Jason groaned, forcing his eyes open.

There were three people standing before him, all roughly the same height. The girl-Robin was staring at him in curiosity. The new batgirl, who must have attacked him, was just sort of staring. And then there was Tim. His replacement, staring with wide eyes that could be seen even through his hastily thrown on domino mask.

What was going on?

“You’re the Red Hood,” Replacement breathed.

“And you’re not Robin, anymore,” Jason quipped back. “What, the old man get tired of you?”

“Nah, he quit,” girl-Robin declared, getting a punch from Replacement. “Ow! What? He’s one of us.”

“He’s also dressed as the Red Hood,” Replacement pointed out. “But, wait, hold on, why are you the Red Hood? Why did you…wait, nevermind. I answered my own question.”

Now the replacement was pacing, clearly thinking something over. Girl-Robin looked just as confused as Jason felt, but the new Batgirl was still standing by, looking unbothered by all of this. It was kind of unnerving.

“Why didn’t you go home,” Replacement finally asking, rounding on Jason. “I know the whole thing with the Joker was messed up, but Bruce still would have taken you home?”

“And what, lock me away from the world until he could figure out my murderous rampage?” Jason scoffed. “Yeah, no thanks, Replacement. Unlike the Bat, I know how to make a difference.”

“No,” Batgirl shook her head. “You know…how to…take. To hurt. Not helping. Not good.”

Who was this brat to tell him what good he was doing?

“She’s right,” girl-Robin added. “You’ve killed gang members, but you haven’t exactly killed anyone controlling the gangs themselves. It’s like you turn a blind eye to them or something. You’re not exactly helping anymore than you’re decreasing the population of Crime Alley. And for your information, I live there. You gonna get me next?”

“I don’t hurt kids,” Jason quipped.

“Then what was tonight,” Steph shot back. “I don’t know what’s going on in your head, red bird, but you’ve got a twisted sense of justice and revenge.”

“Angry.”

Everyone glanced to Batgirl.

“Angry. Green angry.”

“Wait, what?” Tim demanded, already crossing the space between him and Jason in two quick strides before removing the domino mask. Jason tried to lash out, but Tim was quicker. Maybe Jason was still too numb. “No way.”

“Angry,” Batgirl repeated.

“You were put in a Lazarus Pit,” Replacement gaped, grabbing Jason’s face and turning his face side to side. “But…but how? The Lazarus Pit isn’t supposed to be able to bring people back from the dead.”

“It didn’t,” Jason quipped yanking his face from the kid’s grip. “I woke up in my grave.”

This time, even Batgirl looked a little green around the face.

“What can’t take a little zombie horror?” Jason snarked.

“I don’t think you’re a zombie,” girl-Robin quipped. “You’re too fleshy for that.”

“Too…what now?”

Girl-Robin seemed unbothered by his questioned, or his previous statement. Like she had just brushed it off.

“So…do we untie him?” she asked the other two.

Wait. He was tied up? Huh. Look at that. He was tied to a chair. What sort of nerve strike had Batgirl done? No, nevermind, they were discussing what to do with him. He needed to pay attention. Wow, he was really off his game today.

“Why are you looking at me?” Replacement demanded as he gaped at the two girls. “He’s the one who attacked you, Robin! Shouldn’t it be your choice?”

“It’s too late early in the morning for these life choice, and I don’t have any waffles.”

“Robin make…waffles?” Not Alfies?”

Batgirl almost sounded hopeful. Then again, Alfred couldn’t make waffles for the life of him. Not that anyone was going to say anything to the man. He was always so proud. Actually, waffles kind of sounded good right now.

“Is your dad home?” girl-Robin asked.

Replacement fixed girl-Robin with a glare. “You’re not using my kitchen.”

“So that’s a no,” girl-Robin grinned. “Batgirl, if you watch Hoodie here and make sure he doesn’t go all crazy, I’ll make us waffles. You too, Hoodie. Everyone needs waffles.”

“Do you have any whipped cream?” Jason asked.

“We are _NOT_ using my kitchen,” Replacement said again.

“That’s still not a no,” girl-Robin pointed out. “To the kitchen!”

\-----------------------

“So, why did you attack me?”

Jason paused from where he had somehow been roped into making everyone waffles. Mainly because he wouldn’t make a giant mess like girl-Robin would.

“I was…trying to attack Replacement,” Jason admitted.

“Okay, but why?” girl-Robin stressed. “I’ll admit he needs a good slap upside the head once in a while,” this statement was momentarily interrupted by a squawk from the Replacement, “but why did you want to blow him up?”

“I wasn’t trying to blow him up,” Jason quipped. “I was _trying_ to send a message to Bruce. Robin should have died with me.”

It was quiet for a moment.

“So your big plan was to blow him up?”

“I wasn’t trying to-! You know what, fine. Forget it. I was definitely trying to blow up the baby bird.”

“Well, tough, Batgirl and I like him alive,” girl-Robin huffed. “And it wasn’t like the old man gave him Robin, so technically, your logic is stupid.”

_What?_

His confusion must have been obvious because girl-Robin gave the replacement a nudge. Quickly getting over his shock at nearly being not-blown up, the kid cleared his throat and instantly dropped his gaze like some blushing school girl.

“I may, or may not, have kind-of-sort-of forced Bruce to take me on as Robin,” Replacement admitted sheepishly.

“What?”

“He was…” Replacement glanced to girl-Robin and Batgirl, but neither looked ready to step in. “Bruce didn’t take your death very well, Jason. He tried to kill the Joker a few times, and I know that’s what you wanted, but he was stopped all three times. And after he realized he couldn’t kill the Joker, he started throwing himself into fights. He was trying to kill himself, Jason. I made myself Robin to try to give him his self-control back.”

“It didn’t work,” girl-Robin deadpanned. “Guy’s still an idiot.”

“I tried, okay!” Replacement burst, as if this was something that hung over his head regularly. Like the weight of the Batman was the weight of Atlas carrying the world. “I’m not his son, St-Robin! He needed Jason more than he needed Robin, but I couldn’t exactly bring Jason back from the dead!”

Talia had failed to mention this. All of this. Jason had just assumed…

“He’s alive, isn’t he?” Jason found himself saying, turning to face the kid. “I’d say you did okay. Better than I did.”

Jason put the waffles in front of the three kids, retracting his hand as he went. Only to be stopped as the new Batgirl reached out to grasp his hand in hers. She gave him a soft, warm smile that felt genuine. Truly genuine

“Given false truths,” Batgirl told him gently. “We can…give you full truths. Listen?”

Replacement and girl-Robin were giving him curious looks. Batgirl was still smiling at him. There was a plate of waffles on the table, and fresh coffee and tea aroma filling the room.

“Yeah. I think I can listen.”

\-----------------------

_“Robin! Report!”_

Stephanie Brown had the guts to role her eyes as Batman’s voice came over the comms, still chewing on her last bite of waffle. She was honestly Jason’s new favorite person.

_“Robin! Report! Now!”_

“Relax, B, I was chewing on my waffles. You and Agent A always say I shouldn’t talk with my mouth full, so I was being courtesy.”

_“You didn’t check in last night.”_

“Waffles,” Steph elaborated. “And Batgirl is with me. Say hi, Batgirl!”

“Hi, B!” Cassandra Cain greeted cheerfully as she sipped her tea.

Something in Batman’s voice _softened. “Hi, Batgirl. Would you tell me where you are?”_

“Next door,” Cass chirped. “With waffles.”

_“Is anyone injured.”_

“Just Jason,” Cass stated.

The line got incredibly silent.

_“I’m on my way.”_

“See, I told you he’d take it better from Cass,” Steph grinned in triumph taking the last waffle, as per their bet. “Now pass me the whipped cream, fruit syrup, and chocolate sauce. I’m making a monster.”

Even Cass had to make a face as Steph did make herself a monster. It looked like diabetes on a waffle, but she had won the bet. A few minutes later, Bruce was barging into the kitchen, only to stop in stunned shock as he took in the scene.

“Hi, B!” Steph waved enthusiastically. Or, that’s what she might have said, but as she had her mouth stuffed with a monstrosity of a waffle, what really came out was; “Hmmmwaaaa, veeee!”

The waffle iron had been wiped down earlier, and most of the mess had been cleaned up. The only mess left was in front of Steph, though, oddly enough, none of said mess had gotten on her own person. She claimed waffle eating was an art. Jason was sitting across from Steph, not meeting Bruce’s gaze, and Cass was perched on the kitchen island so she could get a better look at the pictures Tim was showing him.

Pictures of Jason as Robin. Pictures of the days Bruce had long since stopped hoping would come back.

“Jason,” Bruce approached, caution in each step and with each breath.

“Hey, B,” Jason gave him a tired smile. “Baby Bird got a real gift here.”

_Baby Bird?_

Tim was blushing, trying to hide his face as he set down the picture they were looking at. It was of Jason, sitting atop his favorite gargoyle, with Bruce ruffling his hair, a fond smile on his face. Tim had clearly taken the utmost care when snapping that picture.

“Yes, he does,” Bruce agreed.

Neither was talking about just the photos.

“Jay?”

“Yeah, dad?”

Bruce sucked in a breath.

\-------------------------

“You didn’t do half bad, boy wonder,” Steph grinned at Tim as they found themselves alone in Tim’s room. “Guess you’re work really paid off.”

Tim grinned at her. “I couldn’t have done it without you or Cass, _Girl_ Wonder.”

“And don’t you forget it.”

Silence between them as they both just sort of basked in the outcome of the day. It wasn’t even lunch yet, and it was already a good day.

“Okay, but would you tell B that? Please. Because I don’t know what it is, but he still doesn’t like me!”


End file.
